The merchants of the Boqueria market want the Barcelona City Council to open as soon as possible the twenty stalls of this municipal market that have been closed for years. The stallholders understand that this could enrich the offer of the equipment and also improve the relationship with Plaça Gardunya, opening up a little more to the Raval neighborhood and the rest of the city.
It is an old claim by traders that is gaining strength again with the arrival of Jaume Collboni as mayor. Here, in Boqueria, many people believe that the new stage can degrease relations with the City Council. The PSC government takes note of the stallholders’ requests with great care, but it is going to review a road map marked out several years ago, so many that it already seems blurry. At the last Economy Commission, the socialist executive accepted a request from Junts for “the Consistory to urgently activate an action plan for closed market stalls, and report on the arrangements made with the traders who are interested in them . For now, more than 10% of the Boqueria stops are closed”. In total, this facility adds up to 185 stalls and a dozen bars in addition to the dozen installed on the porches.
Jordi Mas, president of the stallholders’ association, and Óscar Ubide, market manager, explain that, with the remodeling that about ten years ago transformed the site’s parking lot into Plaça Gardunya, the Boqueria set up in front of the new space five stops that never went into operation. The traders want the City Council to call a public tender in order to devote them to catering and tasting and to plant a few tables and chairs in the square.
In this city, the idea of ??planting terraces is always controversial, but according to the merchants, these uses would help to recover this corner of the Raval that the residents usually try to leave behind as soon as possible. The stallholders argue that La Rambla has always been the gateway for tourists, and La Gardunya, the one for Barcelona residents, and that this will also revitalize the side streets and farmers’ stalls. Apparently, a few renowned lifelong restaurateurs are willing to take a chance, if the administration makes things easy for them. “A pastry shop could be opened, for example. The market has none.” “Hurry to give new life to the square”. “Nor would it be out of the question to consider another kind of closure at the back, instead of the current back doors that isolate us from Plaça de la Gardunya.”
One of the objectives of the Collboni government for this mandate is to rebuild the coexistence of the square. Lately, its ecosystem is basically made up of rowdies who spend the day drinking and tourists who try paellas, skewers and other pre-cooked dishes they buy from the stalls. La Boqueria is also the largest takeaway food venue in Catalonia. No other place offers so much food on sticks. The neighbor feels that he is in a lost territory, that he does not paint anything. At the fish stalls, shopkeepers ask lobstermen trying to take selfies with the lobsters not to touch the crustacean’s claws.
Some terraces could at any given moment enliven the Gardunya, and could also enhance the great snack bar it has become. Here the laws of supply and demand in free will have these consequences. The violent disputes of seagulls and pigeons over the remains of the tourists’ food testify to this. This is where municipal prudence comes from.
But the merchants of the Boqueria believe that a strict competition could renew the market offer. That is why they are also asking the City Council to reactivate the fifteen unused stops in the corridors as soon as possible. We are talking about some stalls successively recovered by the Council since 2017 in order to one day remove them and open a third internal square that oxygenates the site. Most of these stalls were dedicated to fresh produce. The association of stallholders understands that the City Council is wasting an opportunity, that the stalls could host quality bets that combine fresh produce and takeaway food, that the operation of some market stalls shows that they are possible. In any case, they also have no choice but to admit that the control by the administration of the Boqueria offer is complicated, that in reality choosing one option or the other depends above all on the will of the shopkeeper . The tentacles of the skewer are long.
“In this mandate, contacts have already begun with the merchants to agree on a future plan for the Boqueria – municipal sources explain. The closed stalls are part of a plan agreed with traders in 2017 to rearrange the commercial mix of the market and create spaces that improve circulation. This has already made it possible to have two internal spaces, the kitchen classroom and a new fish area. The purpose of the stops now without activity is to have spaces to continue this reorganization”. In any case, add the municipal sources, the contacts with the traders in the coming days will help to specify the definitive uses of these stops”.
